Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

Created: 01/08/16

Replies: 14

Posted Jan. 08, 2016
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davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 1411

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Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

The letter Annie receives from Emme's uncle contains a major revelation. Did this revelation come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible for the shaping of her own history?

Posted Feb. 08, 2016
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deeh

Join Date: 03/03/12

Posts: 186

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

I was indeed surprised by the revelations in the letter. I had seen Emme as merely a device to enable Annie to tell her story. I think Emme is not thinking rationally about the amount of blame she assigns to Annie and her perceptions are skewed by her poor relationship with her mother prior to her mother's death.

Posted Feb. 08, 2016
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reene

Join Date: 02/18/15

Posts: 250

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

The letter from the uncle did come as a surprise. It seemed almost too pat a solution to explain Emme's actions. I feel her character needed to be further developed throughout the story, rather than suddenly become the cause of the accident and the need for Annie's actions after the accident. She was a child when both of her parents die, but she was also old enough to know that Annie was in some ways responsible for her parents' unhappiness. There is that gap in the story of how and when Emme learned about Annie.

Posted Feb. 08, 2016
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Marcia S

Join Date: 02/08/16

Posts: 120

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

I'm not sure it was totally a surprise. I expected something to come of the past relationships. Emme blamed Annie because she needed something to explain what happened between her parents. I don't think it was Annie's fault as they seemed to have an agreement for an 'open' marriage.

Posted Feb. 11, 2016
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CAC

Join Date: 12/15/15

Posts: 19

RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

As to the reader and to Annie, the letter was a surprise but I think that Emme was really out there - emotionally a wreck - blaming Annie for all the woes in her life. There were hints about Emme's emotional stability after she met Micheal the owner of the new store next to Annie's store. As a reader you do realize that the character, Emme, had to be in the story for a major reason. She worked with Annie, lived the in apt. above the store and babysat for Annie's girls. However, I do think the author could have developed Emme's past and emotional instability a little more.

Posted Feb. 11, 2016
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alisonf

Join Date: 01/31/13

Posts: 90

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

I was not expecting the revelation but it didn't make much sense why Emme was so hostile toward Annie after Annie had been kind to her and she was getting involved with Annie's son. Unfortunately, Emme was too young when her family fell apart to understand what the family dynamic had been that led to Annie being on vacation with them. I can understand the blame but you might think she would have worked through some of this considering the time that had lapsed.

Posted Feb. 11, 2016
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joyces

Join Date: 06/16/11

Posts: 403

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

It did come as a surprise to me but perhaps shouldn't have. I think that she was a very disturbed young woman and her rather eccentric behavior and sort of arriving out of no where should have raised some questions in my mind. As with so many people Emmie chose to blame someone else for what is wrong in her life and she fixated on Annie's seeming perfect life as very unfair.

Posted Feb. 11, 2016
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terrio

Join Date: 08/16/11

Posts: 65

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

I suspected that Emme might be Daisy at some point in the novel, but I talked myself out of that because I knew that Daisy was about 11 years older than Robbie and I didn't get the impression that Emme was that much older than he was. So I wasn't really surprised by the revelation in the letter--it just confirmed one of my earlier suspicions. I did think the letter was rather cavalier in terms of the damage Emme had done. "She's really sorry" didn't seem enough to me. At the very least, her great-uncle should have offered some monetary reparations for the damage to the store.

It's hard to know if Emme was justified in holding Annie responsible since we don't know what the letter that Annie wrote to Louise when she (Annie) was drunk actually said. I think it would have been great if the author had included the letter at the end of the novel, since it would have explained so much.

Posted Feb. 13, 2016
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Rebecca L.

Join Date: 02/08/16

Posts: 42

RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

The revelation from the letter did come as a bit of a surprise but I started to have suspicions when Annie revealed Emme's outburst on the night before the accident. Emme raged at Annie for not appreciating the fact that her parents were still alive, and that brought a few questions into my mind since I had already been wondering what happened to Daisy. While I don't think that Annie was "responsible" for what happened to Emme's family (the cracks in that foundation were there long before Annie came along) I do think that its reasonable the Emme would want to seek out Annie after she found the letter that Annie had written to Louise (which sounded entirely inappropriate solely based on the use of the word "ecstasy"). It is unfortunate that Emme/Daisy grew up in such a broken environment but I don't think that it was Annie's fault.

Posted Feb. 13, 2016
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darylb

Join Date: 06/23/13

Posts: 98

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

Yes, it was a complete surprise to me. I don't think Annie was was the catalyst that destroyed Emme's family. They had their own set of issues long before Annie arrived on the scene. But I think that Emme was looking for answers to her own demons and Annie was a participant in their past.

Posted Feb. 14, 2016
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rebajane

Join Date: 04/21/11

Posts: 189

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

It was definitely a surprise. I agree with others that said Annie was not necessarily the catalyst for the destruction. But I do believe that Emme needed a scapegoat and Annue was the logical choice

Posted Feb. 15, 2016
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caroln

Join Date: 04/14/11

Posts: 48

RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

It did come as a surprise however, as i look back on the story, it should have been no surprise to the reader. She kind of just appear and Annie was so drawn to her, that should have been the clue. I agree with several other readers Emme's life was not Anne'e fault - she had a very mixed up family raising, or trying to raise her.

Posted Feb. 15, 2016
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joang

Join Date: 05/17/12

Posts: 31

RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

I must admit that the letter from Emme's uncle did come as a surprise to me. The revelation that she was Daisy! I thought it was a great twist! Daisy was not really mentioned much. You knew that they had a daughter, her age and that she was away at boarding school. You knew that she was skiing with friends and would be arriving Christmas Eve. Annie never met her. We (the readers) never meet her. Perhaps by not developing her and having her play a role in the novel it allows for the effectiveness of the surprise.I had a suspicion that Malcolm might be Robbie's father because of the timing of Annie's encounter with Malcolm (without a condom) and Jonathan (a condom that broke or slipped). In retrospect I can't identify any scenes that made me suspicious that Emme might be Daisy. I was not sure who she was or what would emerge. She remained somewhat on the periphery for a little while and then was drawn into the family by Annie then Robbie. She definitely was a little out there but I did not pick up on any anger or mania until the outburst at dinner.I do not feel she is justified in holding Annie responsible for what happened to her father in terms of his death. We really don't know her to understand her. I think that this adds to the story and the surprise

Posted Feb. 15, 2016
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nancyh

Join Date: 06/25/13

Posts: 161

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

The letter did come as a surprise. It had to be put in there to explain Emme was really Daisy. I think Emme could have been built up more, so she became more of a central character. I do not think Annie was the cause of Daisy's problems. Here parents had so many problems before Daisy came into the picture. I do believe there was any mention of previous lovers.

Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Navy Mom

Join Date: 04/12/12

Posts: 213

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RE: Did the revelation in the letter from Emmie's uncle come as a surprise? What previous scenes hint at this revelation? Is Emme justified in holding Annie responsible?

I had suspected that Emme was Daisy. But I didn't make the connection of the letter. I thought it was interesting that the Author never let us know exactly what the letter said. So the reader can imagine what the letter says. I probably think it was worse than it really was. I don't think that Malcolm's heart attack was Annie's fault, so I don't see why Emme would blame Annie. I think Patrick would have been a better choice to put blame on since it was her mother was still alive and with Daisy. Daisy was mentally ill. She probably would have been that way no matter what had happened to her as a child. I thought it was interesting that she was so drawn to Robbie and he to her.